Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-05-27
MIR. BEE AND HIS CHINAMAN

Mr.. Consul Bee, who represents an i'm
perial Mongolian master, has officiously
and with unreasonable haste rushed to
the defense Of Hong Di, and sought to
build up for him excuses of shelter
No one condemns Mr. Bee for looking
after the rights of the Chinese and being
watehful that they are protected by all
the guarantees of the law But how comes
it that he has had detectives in Colusa
county spying about the Billion residence,
and nosing in muck heaps of suspicion in
the effort to evolve defense for a Chinese
murderer then at large, and doing their
best to find some ground for smirching
the fair name of the dead victim of his
clients fiendishness?
How comes it that Mr. Bees detectives
were not put to better use by being directed
to uncover the track of the murderer?
How did it happen that Mr. Bee, accord
ing to his own story, was aware of the al
legged criminality of Mrs Billion before
Hong Di was arrested?
1t looks very much as if the whole SLAM
derous story might have had its genesis
in the consulate at San Francisco. Strange,
indeed, that the story of Mr. Bee and Mr..
Hong Di should fit together with such
nicetyl
We find Mr. Bee visiting Mr. Di in Jail
at Oroville, and the latter Immediately
enlarges upon his original yarn, giving it
new color and yividness, and supplementing
1t with an attempt to write the story of his
crime. OF course Consul Bee, who de-
clares Mr.. Dis crime can be only that Of
an assault with deadly weapon (the fact
that seven bullets were fired by the assassin
being conveniently ignored, has had
nothing to dowith advising the prisoner to
thus enter the realm of criminal litera-
ture; nor can any one suppose for a mo-
ment that Di would lie 10 his Consul, or
that the latter functionary does not possess
means of dragging truth from Cinnamon
unknown to other men and the methods of
other men.
Mr.. Bee does his best by cunning and
the assumption Of quasi judicial attitude
to impress people with a sense of his i'm
partiaiity and influence, but, unfortunately
for him, he finds nothing for the dead he
can conceive of no prescriptions in her
favor; his narrowed vision cannot see be-
yOnd the cell of Hong Di, or comprehend
any theory but that of self-defense for the
assassin. He has never heard, possibly, of
Chinese Indifference to oaths and obliga-
tons that are supposed to insure truth
telling among other men. He has never
heard, probably, of Chinese assaults for
beastial purposes, too horrible to contem-
plate, as motives for murder He cannot
conceive that this lusty young Chinaman,
raised from early boyhood by the
upright woman, and treated by her with
more kindness and consideration than falls
to the lot of most coolies, could have had
some other prompting than that of fear of
Weaver that led him to shoot the latter
unaware, to rush into the room and past
the man, and FIRE shot after shot at the
mother and finally to advance upon the
daughter of his benefactress when both of
her protectors were, as he supposed, dead.
Mr.. Bee protests too early and too much
for his Chinese assassin. His theory of
the crime prior to the arrest comedies too
closely with the declarations of Di after
arrest, to avoid the suspicion that there is
method in it.
The Consul is constantly in the Chi
nese atmosphere, and he may have
heard and probably did hear through
Chinese in Colusa county Of Hong Dis
story prior TO the arrest. But if
everything the assassin saws is true,
If the theory of Mr.. Bee is exact
truth, it remains that Di is murderer of
the basest order; that he shot from am
bush and when not assaulted; that he was
not IN danger of his life and could have
fed had he wished, if it is conceded that
Weaver had threatened him. 1t remains
that he repeated the shooting; that he as
saulted the girl after killing the mother
and wounding the man that he left be-
hind him seven bullet marks in the walls
10 testify TO his love for the family. and fed
when his final attempt to get at the girl
proved futile. In short, Mr.. Bee has been
shamefuliy quick to espouse the cause of
hi, the murderer, and at the same time to
smireh the reputation of his victim.
Before the defense Of a Chinese assassin.
in Mr.. Bees estimation, the fair fame of
the dead woman and the oath Of her
daughter count for nothing. The word of
Chinese murderer is, according to Mr..
Consul Bee, to be taken before the sworn
declaration Of the orphaned child of Mrs.
Billion, and the eye witnesses of the
assassia's crime, though even then ii cuts
no figure in the case, and cannot afford any
sort of excuse-saye in the estimation OF